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Tired of boring lectures?? Just take out your cell phone and start bombing with your classmates.

Bombsquad

Overview

BombSquad is like a photo album full of colorful episodes, but instead of pictures, it offers mini-games for single player, of Co-op for 1-4 players, Teams for 2-8 players and Free-For-All for 2-8 players.

Co-op (1-4 players) consists of levels, where you have to complete one to unlock the next level. Teams consists of mini-games playlists – just Capture the flag games, Just Sports games and default, which is a mix of both. Sports games include soccer and ice hockey.

Gameplay

Even though BombSquad shines best when you play with controllers and, most importantly, friends, I wanted to see how it plays in a single campaign, and it’s also great. The game throws you into an arena, where you can perform four actions – walk and run, kick and box, pick up and let go of objects and throw bombs.

The next thing you know the arena starts getting filled with colorful boxes, and it almost feels like Christmas. You can run around collecting the boxes containing power-ups – boxing gloves, shields, health, sticky bombs and plenty of other goodness that makes the gameplay enjoyable.

In no time, though, appear your opponents and from there, you have no time to indulge in loot grinding. They start throwing bombs at you, and thankfully they don’t always aim well, but that’s the challenge you have to face, too. Aiming when throwing bombs at your foes is physics-based, and you don’t just launch the bomb and tap to let go. You have to calculate distance and direction, as well as your opponent’s speed. Sometimes, you would both run at one another throwing bombs that meet halfway in between you and explode killing you both.

Then, there is kicking and boxing action, which I enjoy most. Your hero, customizable by the way, feels like a puppet with particularly heavy fists, and when you move him, the fists go first, and then the body. This is especially helpful when you need to kick some ass – boxing is realistic and hilarious, with jumps and falls. Sometimes, you would push your enemies off the arena, and they die with a distant cry; sometimes they would push you off.

In group gaming, you can connect to the same WiFi network and play in teams of up to 4 people each. You can also download a BombSquad Remote app and use your Android device as a controller for BombSquad you play with your friends on OYUA or Mac.

Controls

As you would imagine, BombSquad comes with a great variety here, supporting external hardware controllers and several ways to control your hero without them, namely swipe or joystick controls. I found the latter to be handy, but that totally depends on your individual play style. The controls are neat and responsive, and all you have to do is measure your passion and aim carefully. Otherwise, bombs will fly and explode in all possible places except for the one you need them.

The game supports network play, 8 player local WiFi play, and single player levels, and it is optimized for NVIDIA Tegra K1, NVIDIA Shield Portable, SHIELD tablet and Android TV.

As I mentioned, there is another BombSquad Remote app, which turns your Android device into a controller when you play on a Mac or Android TV.

Perks

A special treat is in the characters department, where you can customize your character, create multiple characters to choose from for each game, name them and select their colors. There are pirates, barbarians, ninjas, chefs and overall, the character gallery is a fun place to visit here.

Bombs come in great variety – regular ones, sticky ones, toxic ones, land mines, TNT and many more. The power-ups come in generous batches, and you never feel like the game has been made to make you pay.

Video – BombSquad automatically saves your last gameplay, which is awesome – you can recap the most hilarious moments, and save the file.

Performance – Overall, this is the perfect Android party game for the adults and kids alike. It runs smooth on devices with Android 4.0 and newer, and does not seem to require any special high-end hardware to perform without stuttering.

It performed great in network game, as well as over the WiFi play, but is best played with a gamepad, so if you have a bunch of friends with Android devices, by all means, this will be your next party treat – it is hilarious, fun and silly, and you can freely take your anger out on your friends in a harmless manner, kicking some barbarian butt on the arena. Besides its great graphics and numerous mini-games,controllers and ways to play solo and in groups, BombSquad is thoroughly fun and hopelessly addictive.

Some users did report WiFi Direct bugs, kicking players out, but my guess is developer will be quick to address those, since the game is very popular and now is the right time to address some minor quibbles.

Even more perks in multiplayer mode – local WiFi Direct, over the network, on your Android TV, Fire TV or Mac, and even using your Android device as a controller

The game is free to play, and even through you will need to pay $5 is you have more than three friends willing to play together, anything below that cap can be enjoyed for hours on end

Excellent ragdoll physics

Great 3D visuals

A great variety of ways to kick your opponents – throw them off the cliff, punch them, kick them around, toss and turn them until they dissolve.

Smooth performance, great execution, fantastic for parties

Great variety of controllers to choose from

An option to set your own sound tracks

Cons

I haven’t found any bugs in my time with the game, although some users report minor WiFi Direct bugs, but these reports are few.

Conclusion

It is silly, fun and addictive, offering tons of ways to play alone and in groups, over the local WiFi, or in the network. The game is a visual delight, and it throws power-ups at you more than it throws enemies to fight, in the single player mode. Its most shining gem, though, is the controllers support and up to 8-players multiplayer options. It is free to play for up to three players, and there are no limitations on the time you can spend playing – no health bars that need 20 minutes to refill, nor cupcakes, if you know what I mean (Angry Birds GO!). It is a brilliantly crafted game, which is A+ as it is, but its shell allows for more mini-games to be added in the future. BombSquad is an absolute hit; you can’t go wrong with it.